Recipe: Amy’s Babaghanoush

This is a traditional middle eastern dip—it’s made very much as hummus is made, only with eggplant rather than chickpeas. It’s important that the eggplant be cooked thoroughly, until it’s quite soft. Cooking the eggplant whole over a grill until the exterior is slightly charred will give it the delicious smoky flavor traditional to babbaghanoush, but in a pinch, you can also bake it in the oven until it collapses a bit on itself. Once it’s cooked, cut it in half and allow it to cool for a few minutes before you scoop the flesh out of the skin and chop it.

Ingredients:

1 medium eggplant, grilled or baked until soft1-2 cloves of garlic, minced or pressedJuice of 1 lemon2 Tbsp. of tahini (I prefer roasted)salt and pepper, to tastecayenne pepper, if desired

Instructions:

When the eggplant is cool enough, scoop the flesh out of the skin and chop it roughly. Place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix them together thoroughly. Serve with pita bread, corn chips or crackers (it’s very nice with sesame crackers).